The War on Human Trafficking | Mitzi Perdue

Author, speaker, and science and health writer, Mitzi Perdue holds a BA with honors degree from Harvard University, an MPA from the George Washington University and is passionate about her work on the war on human trafficking.  She is a past president of the 40,000-member American Agri-Women, and as a former syndicated columnist, her Scripps Howard column, The Environment and You for almost 10 years was the most widely syndicated environmental column in the US. Her television series, Country Magazine, was syndicated to 76 stations. Currently she is a hostess for EarthX TV, and writes for Trusts and Estates Magazine, Psychology Today, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents, Wealth Management, and USA Today Magazine. In 2020, she was a guest on more than 60 podcasts. She expects to spend the years that remain to her combatting one of the worst scourges on the planet, human trafficking.

bio source: https://www.winthisfight.org/

[1] Black Seeds: The History of Africans in America Vol. 1

[2] https://www.educationviews.org/white-slaves-america/

Transcript:

Alan Olsen:

When you think of slavery, stereotype image of African Americans working southern plantations may come to mind. However, slavery is far more wide spread than that. It has existed for thousands of years and is not limited to one race, country or nationality. In the Book of Exodus we read that more than 2 million Hebrew slaves were led out of bondage in Ancient Egypt. Millions of Africans were transported as slaves to New World territories- sadly 90% of them were captured and sold to slave traders by other Africans[1].  White Irish and Scottish people were trafficked America for forced labor well into the 1800’s.[2]

When WW2 began, the Germany began putting Jews into concentration labor camps, however  Jews weren’t the only ones enslaved by the Nazis. As Hitler’s empire expanded across Europe, more workers were needed to support the war effort. When recruitment could not provide enough workers, more than 5 million people- most of them coming from Eastern Europe- were captured and brought them into Germany where they were forced to labor.

 

While the public perceives that slavery ended with the civil war- this couldn’t be further from the truth. Slavery knows no boundaries- affects all races- And it is still thriving today… just under a new name: Human Tracking.

 

It was 2:00 in the afternoon on March 11^th 2019. Mitzi Perdue sat in attendance at a lecture presented by the Children’s Liberation Foundation. She listened in horror as she began to see the prevalence of modern day slavery within America. Soon she would start a movement to combat this hidden but rampant evil in the world.

 

Mitzi Perdue:

I thought, you know, this is something I can’t unsee and I can’t turn my back on. All the money that I can put my fingers on I give to charity anyway. And if I wrote a great big check to the child liberation Foundation, that that meant, that meant that I’d have to cut back on another charity. And I had an idea. And the idea was, I inherited from my parents, what is likely to be an extremely valuable item of furniture. Now, why would an item of furniture be valuable? Well, this particular one, we believe it belonged to a Domenici Cardinal. And there’s markings on it that indicate that it came from around the year 1600. And it occurred to me, you know, if I put this up for auction, it would accomplish two valuable things, raise a lot of money, I hope, but then it would also raise awareness because, you know, it’s a historic thing. Newspapers would probably pick up the story that would probably beneficial be beneficial to letting additional people who might never know anything about human trafficking. So I’m all set to do this. But then I had an idea that was sort of life changing. If I was in that situation, might there be other ultra high net worth individuals who don’t have money that’s not already committed, but might have valuable items that they’d be willing to donate to help combat human trafficking.

 

Alan Olsen:

Mitzi quickly founded an anti human trafficking organization of her own. She called it- Win This Fight. Within a short period it would grow to consist of a task force of over 350 people strong dedicated to create awareness about modern day slavery. Mitzi began planning an charity auction. She needed to raise $100 million with 3 years. She would spend much of the remainder of 2019 year spanning the globe searching out priceless artifacts, paintings and jewelry to be donated. Some of these include:

 

A Diamond and Sapphire Necklace owned by the late singer, Marlene Dietrich.

 

A set of 12 dinner plates belonging to Tsar Alexander.

 

And an Emerald Ring from the famed Spanish treasure gallon, Nuestra Señora de Atocha. In 1622, the Atocha set sail with a fleet of ships from the harbor of Havana Cuba. The amount of riches consisting of gold, silver and jewels would amount to nearly $1 billion today. The voyage to Spain would take more than 2 months- however Mother Nature had something else in mind. Fierce winds and waves pummeled ship dragging it down to the ocean floor where it would rest for more than 300 years. While the history behind this donation is impressive, it isn’t the only historic gem that would be pledged towards the auction.

 

Mitzi Perdue:

I spent a good bit of 2019, traveling around the globe accumulating extraordinary gifts for what is scheduled to be an astounding auction. I mean, I think we have a chance of raising $100 million.

Well, I’m in Taiwan, and this guy had heard that I was giving talks on the subject, and also in China and Hong Kong. He invited me to his home. And there on the second floor, we had a tea room. And he’s asking me about what I’m doing, how I feel about human trafficking. And I quickly discovered that he hates it. And he knew what I was there for- wanting a donation. And I’m hoping for something. But in the course of the conversation, we get to talking about how this is the second largest source of revenue for organized crime, it’s a $150 billion a year- an unfathomable amount.

“And he said, aren’t you afraid that the cartels and the trafficking kingpins are going to come after you and murder you?”

Well, I heard my mouth opening and just blurting out something I hadn’t thought about it. But I said to this guy, I’m 78 years old. I believe in this cause. I don’t care.

 

Well, I could see that he should have that he reacted to this. And he got up and he walked around his chair to a wall that had a curtain on it, pulled the curtain and there you could see a safe, and you know, he’s manipulating the dials in the safe, opens it up and reaches in and took out a 69.7 carat, perfect Ruby that belongs to a Ching Dynasty Emperor.

This gentleman, his family were hereditary curators of the Qing Dynasty jewels. And when the red Chinese took over China, he took some of the treasures with him.

It could be worth $40 million.

 

Alan Olsen:

Mitzi’s Auction was scheduled to take place in January of 2021. However, Covid would throw a wrench into her plans. The Auction house would advise Mitzi to postpone, as economic factors threatened the auctions success. Ultimately the auction date was be delayed. Despite this setback Mitzi is moving forward continuing the fight with a new campaign.

 

If we look back at World War 2, Jews and other Eastern European slaves could not have been freed from Nazi labor camps had it not been for the many brave Americans that stepped up to the plate.

In order for millions of soldiers to travel overs seas to fight against Hitler, new laborers would be needed to support the war effort by taking their place in factories.

At this time, an ordinary woman was transformed into a famous icon- she would inspire hundreds of thousands, regardless of age, race or gender to join the fight back at home- ultimately allowing America to help win the war against evil. Nearly 75 years later she would be called upon again by Mitzi to fight against human trafficking.

Her name is Rosie the Riveter.

 

Mitzi Perdue:

Rosie the Riveter wore a bandana. And what she was really famous for is she struck a pose. And her pose was making a muscle and looking at her fist. If you’re male, we want you to be rusty the Riveter. But take a selfie of yourself making a muscle will get your fist, then post it on your social media. And give $5 to the anti trafficking organization of your choice.

 

If she and her colleagues hadn’t existed, World War Two might have had a different outcome.

 

Alan Olsen:

If you don’t step up to the plate, the war on Human Trafficking- Modern Day Slavery could have a different outcome too.

So what organization are you going to donate towards? Let us know in the comment section below. Also in the description box below we’ll include a link to Mitzi’s website where you can sign up for her blog to stay informed.

 

And it you believe in this channel and make sure to hit that like button- when you do you’re forcing youtube’s algorithm to blast this content out to others and the more this message spreads, the more trafficking victims can be helped.

Last of all, if you want to receive more videos like this, subscribe to our channel and ring the bell. This is Alan Olsen with American Dreams, and we’ll see you next time.

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com.  GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.

Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio